Search

This gas leak took place in Bhopal, India and I think that the location has an important impact on the aftermath of the situation. After the gas leaked people protested to be compensated for their lost ones but many died before they were able to be justified. I feel that if this happened in America, circumstances would have been different, there would have been more media coverage, and action would be taken more swiftly. The location of this occurrence had an impact with how it was handled after and if it had occurred some place else then it would have been different. 

This film focuses on the environmental and social problem of having large gas (lethal) plants near cities or other populated areas where people can be harmed. Environmentally these gasses are no good because they are emitted into the air and are very soluble in the water which leads to ocean acidification. Ocean acidification makes it so that the ocean has a lower pH level, this can harm marine wildlife. Socially, the gas is toxic to people and as seen in the Bhopal tragedy, it can kill people or severely alter their lives. This could be seen through the immediate deaths of civilians, deformities of children born after the incident, and the families affected even years after hoping for justice.

From watching the video, I feel affected emotionally because it was definitely hard to watch so many people die, especially the innocent children. It is a hard pill to swallow to watch the lives of so many people taken away from them so unexpectedly in their own homes. I feel affected by seeing the photo of the unknown child because it was hauntingly touching as it was for so many people that advocated for justice after this tragedy. It was also really daunting seeing so many people being buried and burned in mass because they were not granted the ability to be respectfully honored for their death which I think is something very valuable. Intellectually I think that this film made me think about how this tragedy could have been possibly prevented if the plant had been maintained and checked up on regularly or if the plant wasn’t so close to a whole city in the first place. And I also feel gratitude to those who are still advocating for justice for the victims and trying to get people with government power to make that change.

1) "It's a community that's all too aware that declaring a crisis doesn't actually mean anything significant will change...Within the last 12 months, there have been multiple "crisis" states declared in Indigenous communities across the country, including even the entire territory of Nunavut—where 84 percent of the population are Inuit."

2) " "What do you find 20 years ago? The same conversations we are having now about suicide. The same conversations we are having now about the lack of mental health. The same conversations that we are having around socio economic development," Tait told VICE."

3) "One of the reasons Canada conveniently forgets the multiple recommendations and reports around youth suicide and mental health is that when it comes to Indigenous peoples they are considered "the other" "

The author is Adriana Petryna, a professor of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to her work as at the University, Dr. Petryna has written several books and articles focusing on the effects of cultural and political forces on science and medicine. Other interests include social studies of science and technology, globalization of health, medical anthropology, and anthropological methods

This chapter from the work "Medicine, Rationality, and Experience: an anthropological perspective" seems to most frequently appear on websites for various Universities and Colleges. Moreover, the work as a whole seems to have been cited several times by subsequent reports further defining patient narration and medical relations.